A garden and a brick structure uncovered at the Dahshour Necropolis have changed views of the functions of a pyramid complexhttp://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/10244/4 ... emple.aspxThe site recently attracted the attention of a mission from the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo, which started comprehensive excavation work in 2010. The work was concentrated in the area north of the Valley Temple of the Bent Pyramid, previously explored by Fakhri, who stumbled upon a brick building that he dated to the Middle Kingdom.Stadelmann later thought it could be a magazine or vestry of the Valley Temple. The brick structure was then reburied in sand.In 2012, a re-examination of the site using a magnetometric survey showed that the building was actually older than the Bent Pyramid Valley Temple and its remains more extensive than previously thought. [...]After removing 15 cm of sand, excavators not only rediscovered Fakhri’s brick structure but also found the remains of an extensive garden which once featured more than 350 plants arranged in long parallel rows enclosed within a five-metre thick wall.The garden site is spread along the area inside the enclosure wall, and its west side includes four rows of 26 tree pits, which range from between 2.2 to 2.4 m in size with diameters ranging from between 50 to 100 cm. An irrigation channel that once watered the roots of the plants was also discovered around the pits.[...]Arnold explained that the field excavations revealed that the ground level of the garden was not entirely horizontal as its southern part was more than one metre higher than the northern side. On this elevated ground, Arnold said, a brick building was constructed, part of which was discovered by Fakhri.Very little of the building is preserved, only the traces of the foundations. It was constructed directly on the natural surface of the desert, in the north on stone and in the south on a compact layer of sand. The building turns out to have been surrounded by a massive, rectangular five-metre-thick enclosure wall running 80.5 m from north to south and 55.8 m from east to west.[...]Traces of a gypsum floor were found, indicating that it was used as a courtyard. “The purpose of the enclosure and the structures in its interior remains unclear,” Arnold said, adding that it was not a chapel or a palace or a regular temple. There are three theories about its original use, as it was built during the life of the king and used during his lifetime and not after his death, like the Valley Temple of his Pyramid Complex.Due to the age of the root remains of the trees, Arnold said that the building could have been used for just five years. “It was a temporary structure,” he concluded.The first theory, the best one, says that the structure could have been a temple where special festivals or ceremonies for a living king were held and not for eternity like in the Valley Temple. “It could have been a place to celebrate the renewal of the king, for example,” Arnold said.The second theory says that the complex is a direct predecessor of the limestone Valley Temple built later in its vicinity, though its ground plan does not share any features with the temple, such as the wing of entrance rooms in the south and the courtyard in the north.The third theory is that the building was a temple for the cult of the king with a garden, but missing the features of a regular temple as it was constructed entirely out of brick. No chapel has been found or any kinds of stelae, statues or false doors.